Ridgers

Derek (1950). British photographer. Born in London. He studied graphics and advertising design at the Earling School of Art, together with the future pop star Freddie Mercury. He graduated in 1971, and worked for ten years in the field of advertising as an art director, and then went on to become a full-time photographer. After his first successes — portraits of pop stars for the New Musical Express — he continued to work on portraits of young punkers and habitués of London night spots (working with a technique somewhere between comics graphics and Renaissance painting), identifying the innovative style of spontaneous fashion, a style that was frequently intentionally unpleasant, and straight from the street. He has had exhibitions in London, Dublin and Paris.